


The Vow

by wellthatjusthappend



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Consent Issues, Fear gas, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Memory Issues, Nothing explicit, Panic Attacks, Sex Pollen, The Blame Game, They are very very drugged, and it's not fun, bad combo, but plenty messed up, emotional warfare, this gets pretty fucked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:00:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21698128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthatjusthappend/pseuds/wellthatjusthappend
Summary: “This is going to be so fucked up,” Jason muttered, dragging a hand over his face.“I won’t do it,” Dick said fervently, “I swear to you, I won’t give in.”“I don’t think they’re planning to give you a choice in the matter, Dickie.”
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 28
Kudos: 319





	The Vow

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of thought putting it down in text would help, but I should know by now that it doesn't with this kind of story. Ah well, sometimes I want to tell these stories but I'm really not cut out for this sort of writing. 
> 
> Mind the tags. And mind your heart.

Dick was groaning before he even regained consciousness. He knew in his bones what Ivy’s pollens felt like. It must be a new strain, because Dick was immunized for most of them. 

Wonderful. Just wonderful. You’d think the bad guys would think of something new to pull.

Dick could already tell that the night was going to suck. 

Someone was breathing fast and uneven against his neck and it was making everything heat up quickly as Dick struggled to stay above the affects of the pollen. 

Wincing, Dick propped himself up off of a shivering and sweating Jason. He seemed to be dosed as well, and further along than Dick was, which wasn’t great. Looking around, Dick observed that they were locked in some kind of box, most of their clothes and armor stripped off but their masks thankfully intact. There were slanted little holes in their container were little pinpricks of light and air were filtering through. 

Dick wondered what on earth the purpose of all this could be. 

At least Bruce would be on his way. The moment Dick’s uniform was removed without the proper sequence, a distress signal was sent to both Oracle and the Batcave. 

Underneath him, Jason’s gasping was getting close to hyperventilation as he clawed at the ceiling of their container. 

“Stop that, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Dick said snatching Jason’s already bloody fingers away from the roof. 

“Buried alive,” Jason gasped out, eyes unfocused and panicked, “I can’t do that again, I can’t, I have to get out, I have to-” 

“Shh, no we’re not,” Dick said feeling his heart ache as he put the pieces together, “Feel that air? See that light? We’re above ground, Little Wing. Now breathe with me…”

“Can’t- I- fear gas-” Jason choked out, eyes squeezing shut. 

“Fear gas?” Dick said pulling up short, “What, no, that doesn’t make sense…”

“Think I don’t know what fear gas feels like after all these years?” Jason laughed humorlessly, “I grew up in the _Narrows_ , Big Bird.” 

“But why would they dose us with different things?” Dick shook his head. It was hard to think straight. Hard to remember that they needed to be trying to escape when Jason’s skin was warm and nice against his, even with all the shaking. 

“Why? What are you on?” Jason opened his eyes just long enough to look at him before squeezing them shut again at whatever the gas was making him see. 

“Pollen,” Dick said shortly, “Ivy’s by the feel of it.” 

“Fuck, shit, they’re trying to get you to- while I can't fight back proper-” Jason said, what little progress he’d made on evening out his breathing gone with the wind as he started to panic again, “They’re trying t-” 

“No, what? I would never _do_ that,” Dick said flinching away both physically and mentally from the idea. 

“They’re trying to break you,” Jason insisted with a hysterical laugh, “I was probably just the most convenient target.” 

“They could just as easily trying to get you to kill me,” Dick shot back, “if I get far enough under this stuff, anything you do to me will feel nice, even if it’s strangling me.”

“Not how I react to fear gas,” Jason shook his head, his curls tangling and sticking to his forehead.

Dick wanted to lick the sweat off his temples and-

Yeah, not doing that. 

“Batman is coming,” Dick finally said instead.

“Batman never comes in time,” Jason said with a weak, horrible smile. 

Dick had nothing to say to that. 

He looked around and tried to figure out how they might get out of the box, but it appeared that there was something heavy on top of whatever container they were in. Finally he had to pause and just pant because every brush against Jason’s skin made lightning flare in his blood and the world go hazy and unimportant. 

With great difficulty, Dick stilled himself and kept his body apart from Jason as best as he could, closing his eyes and trying to hold onto himself through the growing heat spreading all through him. 

“Batman will come,” he said again, more to himself than anyone else. 

Jason said nothing underneath him. 

For a while they just breathed and both just tried to compartmentalize the effects of the drugs. 

It couldn’t last though, the weakness in Dick’s limbs grew until he couldn’t hold himself away anymore and he collapsed on top of Jason. The feel of skin against his made everything feel perfect and warm for one moment. Then Jason was making a low hurt sound and shoving Dick away roughly.

A quiet moan left Dick before he could stop himself and he could feel Jason’s shaking get worse beside him.

“Jay…” Dick reached for him, and Jason flinched and tried to flatten himself to the other side of the container.

“Don’t,” he said, “Normally I’d lend you a hand, but I… Fuck, I can’t. Not on fear gas. It’ll be too fucked up, even for me.” 

“No, no, don’t worry about me,” Dick hurried to reassure him, “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“You might not have a choice,” Jason said with an awful laugh. 

“No,” Dick said with a hard edge, “I swear to you, Little Wing, I will never hurt you that way.”

Jason stared at him for a long moment before turning away. 

“I’d like to believe you, but…” he gave him a fucked up smile, “Fear gas and shit. Y’know, replaying out all the worst case scenarios over and over and all that.”

“I’m so sorry, Little Wing,” Dick winced. His own growing need felt selfish in comparison. 

“You’re not the one who needs to be sorry,” Jason said with a hard edge.

Dick wondered what the odds were of keeping Jason from murdering their captors when this was all over. 

“I know this is a rotten situation, but I promise you, I won’t become something you have to be afraid of,” Dick promised softly. 

Jason just snorted in disbelief, “We’re a bit past that.”

Dick tried not to feel like someone had just stabbed him in the chest. 

“Still…”

“Dick,” Jason bit out, hands clutched tight around his middle, “Just… shut up.”

Dick closed his mouth and nodded, though he wasn’t sure Jason was even looking at him. 

It was hard to keep track of time as the drugs started truly taking affect. Where was Bruce? It felt like it had been too long, but maybe it had only been a few minutes…? Dick tried to count his breaths and hold onto his resolve as everything but the need inside him started to fade. 

Beside him, Jason had started to weep silently and flinch away from things only he could see. Dick wanted to hold him, but something in him was insisting that would be a bad idea. 

The minutes ticked on until the heat slowly swallowed his consciousness.

****

Dick’s whole body ached, and there was a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. The soft steady beeping was making his head ache. Dick groaned and then winced as his throat protested. There was something… something important that he wasn’t remembering. 

Jason. Captured. Fear gas and Pollen.

Dick sat up quickly before he could even think about it.

“Easy…” Bruce was right there pushing him back down to the cot. Dick slowed his breathing and let himself take in his surroundings. He was in the cave in the med bay. There was an IV and and monitor hooked up to him and his wrists were tied to the bed. 

Batman had come. Dick knew he would. 

“I’m ok,” he croaked. He noticed that Batman was still suited up and Tim, Damian, and even Alfred were nowhere to be found, “Can you let me up?”

Batman just stared at him. Maybe there was still pollen in him? That might make sense. 

“Where’s Jason?” Dick tried next, “Is he ok?” 

The stare just got harder.

“Tell me what happened,” was all Bruce said, making Dick’s unease grow. He tried to remember, but most of it was a haze of heat and feeling…

_“No, please, no…” Jason whimpered, shivering and shaking and that was no good. Dick cupped his face and kissed the tears off his cheeks, then his forehead, then lost himself to the lovely soft feel of that mouth…_

_“Your so good…” Dick slurred into his skin, “So good for me, the best…”_

_Jason just kept shaking and mumbling things and names Dick couldn’t quite understand. Dick tried to make him see, if they just touched more, if he just loved him better, then the hot slide of their skin against each other would make everything better._

_Dick just needed neededNEEDED-_

“I-” Dick’s voice cracked a little, his heart rate on the monitor kicking up in speed, “I don’t really- Oh, god, did I…?” 

Bruce said nothing. 

“I don’t remember, I don’t-”

“What _do_ you remember?” Bruce asked quietly. 

“I…” Dick tried to calm himself enough to obey, but panic and horror was rising fast, “I was out on patrol in 'haven when someone got me with some sort of sleeping agent. Jason and I weren’t patrolling anywhere near each other, they must have targeted us specifically. Woke up with him in some kind of container. Pollen. Fear gas. Bruce, please, I need to know-”

Bruce laid a hand on Dick’s shoulder and he quieted slightly. 

“We never got your distress signal,” Bruce started, “It would have taken us much longer to discover that you were gone, except Oracle tried to contact you about a report of gang violence that had broken out in the haven and couldn’t get a hold of you or any of your tracers. Robin and I picked up the trail though and managed to track you to an old shipping center near the interstate. We didn’t know they had taken Red Hood as well until we found you.”

“How… how bad was it?” Dick asked, almost not wanting to know- god, _Damian_ had seen that. No wonder he wasn’t there. 

“It seems Red Hood had hyperventilated himself into unconsciousness by the time we arrived,” Bruce said taking a deep breath. Dick could tell how hard this was on him, “there was a fair amount of blood and semen on both of you. They appear to have overdosed you with the new pollen agent and when we tried to seperate you, it seemed to trigger a small seizure…” 

“Oh god-”

“We brought you both back to the cave for treatment, but Jason awoke before we could do much more than give him the antidote and took off while we were tending to you. We have not been able to make contact with him since, but he seems to be staying with his old team.”

“Then you don’t know if I-?”

“No.”

Dick didn’t know if was better or worse not to know. 

“The blood?” he finally asked cautiously.

“From both of you,” Bruce nodded, “Most of it seems to be from scratches Jason left on both of you with his fingernails.”

Most of it. 

Now that Bruce mentioned it, he could feel the slight sting of the scratches on his face and sides. They were unlikely to scar, but that didn’t make Dick feel any better about them. He wondered if he wanted to know what he was doing or what Jason was seeing when those injuries happened. 

“I need to talk to Jason,” Dick said, twisting against his restraints. 

“You need to rest,” Bruce said firmly.

“I need to know.”

“He was under the influence of fear gas, his memories may not be the most reliable,” Bruce warned. 

“Is that what you believe, or just what you hope?” Dick gave a fucked up laugh. 

Bruce said nothing. 

“God, you-” Dick let himself fall back against the bed again, “if you won’t let me up, then at least leave me alone.”

Dick kind of hated how quickly Bruce was to retreat. 

He didn’t want to think about what happened. He especially didn’t want to think about what might have happened. What everyone seemed to believe he most likely did. 

Dick turned his face into his pillow and wept. 

****

_“No, no, please…” the Red Hood begged, fingers digging into Nightwing’s sides._

_“It’s ok,” Nightwing kissed his forehead and face over and over, “I’ll keep you safe, I promised I’d keep you safe…”_

The video paused. 

“What a disappointment,” groaned the first man, “Looks like both of our bets were wrong. I was hoping Hood would kill the pretty one, not whatever this sweet mushy shit is.” 

“On the contrary, I still think we can count the experiment as a success,” said the other, folding their hands. 

“How the fuck is that a success?” said the first, gesturing to the tender embrace on the screen. 

“Why? Because there is nothing more chaos inducing than uncertainty. Haven’t you noticed? No one is exactly sure about what happened, and in the meantime, the vigilante community is splitting at the seams. I told you Nightwing was the true pedestal around here. Tear him down even a little and everyone is left in shambles. Batman would never garner this kind of reaction.” 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” the first glowered, “But it’s on you if this ends up bonding them all together even tighter in the end.”

“We’ll see,” the other smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn't not give a glimmer of hope for the future. It's still going to be pretty brutal though because even once they learn the truth the imagined/remembered events have a fair amount of sway even in the face of the actual events themselves. 
> 
> As soon as Jason calms down, he'll know that his hallucinations don't match up with the story that his body is telling. Not that he'll be overly eager to talk to anyone anytime soon. 
> 
> I have a fair amount of plot for this one written in notes, but... I'm going to call it complete here. I can promise you that eventually, they find a way to be okay again.


End file.
